Collages - unbelievable 3D pictures

You've created 3D photos, maybe 3D computer rendered scenes and 3D objects - and now let's think, how to mix it all together. In this article we will show you, how to insert a 3D picture to another one - how to create a 3D collage.

Using techniques described in this article you can create quite complex 3D collages - for example a 3D child sleeping in a flower, your girlfriend (boyfriend) sitting in rendered 3D flat, 3D rendered figure with you in the mountain...

Let's begin
At the beginning you should have a 3D picture - for example a 3D room (we've created it in this article ) or a 3D photo (we took them in this article ). To this picture we will add another things - for example a 3D object (we've created these in this article ) or a part of another photo.
You will need a graphical editor (we recommend PaintShop - it's trial version - for 30 days - is available here - in Free Trials section; You can find the link to this program on our download page for members - and we update it there when necessary).
The thing you want to insert to a 3D picture should be cropped (to be without it's background). If you use rendered 3D object - figure then it's easy to prepare it - just use the magic wand from PaintShop to it's singlecolored background (it will be completely selected) and then use Selections/Invert - and your figure is selected. Then copy it to Windows clipboard (Edit/Copy) and then to your 3D picture (Edit/Paste).

A little bit of the theory
The most important question is: Where to place the new object to a 3D image? Just look to our first scheme on this page. The letters L and R at the bottom of the scheme mark the Left and the Right eye. Horizontal multicolored line at both eyes shows how is the image visible for them.
The big blue area is visible for both eyes, but the little yellow one only for the left eye and the little green one only for right eye. Look at the scheme once again - you can see the picture is shifted for the right eye more then for the left one - the right eye can see a little bit more to the right, the left one a little bit more to the left.
In front of the basic picture (which is shown as a line of colored rectangles) we've placed a red sphere. There are lines (rays of light) directed to it from bot eyes. For the left eye is the sphere placed in front of a yellow rectangle of the basic picture, but the right one can see it as placed in front of a brown one. The right eye can see the sphere a little bit more to the left, the left one a little more to the right. You can see the right and the left view in the right bottom corner of the scheme. The more is the sphere near the eyes, the more is it shifted on the left/right picture.

Creating a 3D collage
And now we can create our first 3D collage. We've used pictures we've created during our previous articles - a picture of a flat and a 3D figure.
At the beginning of your work check if both basic pictures (the left and the right view to the flat in our example) are equally vertically shifted, are the same size and don't need to be rotated. As the last step of our work we will use 3DJournal software - but we recommend not to do any corrections in it this time (except of horizontal shift). If you need to do any changes to the left or right picture (a shift, a rotation etc.), do it in the graphical editor before you start creating your collage.
Now take your left and right picture - for example our 3D flat. If it's neccessary, change the size of your figure to match other parts of the flat. Paste the left image of the figure to the left image of the flat (for example in front of the desk). Remember exactly it's position. Now paste the right image of the figure to the right image of the flat - exactly to the same height. It should be shifted a little bit more to the left (because, as you know, the right eye can see items in front of the image as shifted a little bit to the left). If you use a background 3D picture with more objects (like in our 3D room), you can estimate the right shift (in our example is the figure a "little bit" in front of the desk/armchair - well, we shift it a "little bit").
If you need to know the shift exactly, create a scheme similar to our one and insert to it your objects as you wish them to be placed in space - and you could see what parts of your basic picture are behind the new object - for the left eye and for the right eye. Then you can place it correctly in your pictures.

The End
Both pictures load to the 3DJournal software, create the 3D picture and use horizontal shift to get the best picture possible. (3DJournal)